<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Unwanted by INMH</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23679271">The Unwanted</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH'>INMH</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Merry Month of Masturbation Fills (2020) [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Attempted Sexual Assault, Drug Use, Drugs, F/M, Masturbation, Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge, Pre-Canon, Sexual Content, Strong Language</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:26:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23679271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/INMH/pseuds/INMH</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-Game. Todd changes when he’s high.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Merry Month of Masturbation Fills (2020) [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Unwanted</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Todd changes when he’s high.<br/>
<br/>
In his day-to-day comings and goings, he is dismissive of Kara. So long as she stays out of his way and does what he expects her to, Todd is content to leave her be and let her work. The only time he speaks to her is when he’s giving her an order, and on these occasions he speaks in either a harsh snap or an indifferent, listless tone.<br/>
<br/>
Kara has never seen Todd happy before.<br/>
<br/>
Not even with Alice.<br/>
<br/>
She barely sees him try to <em>parent</em> Alice, for all that he calls her his daughter; so that often falls to Kara too, a task she takes on with considerable more enthusiasm than the dishes or the laundry. She cherishes Alice, and wants to protect her from any evil the world might threaten her with- especially from her father’s erratic and sometimes dangerous behavior.<br/>
<br/>
Because the worst times are always when Todd is high.<br/>
<br/>
His anger is more intense, and Kara and Alice have learned well the difference between Todd’s regular-angry voice and his Red-Ice-Angry voice. The regular-angry voice will bring yelling and criticisms; the Red-Ice-Angry voice will yield physical blows and roaring that would send a grizzly bear running. Once the Red Ice sets in, Todd is twitchy and anxious and paranoid and <em>ugly</em>.<br/>
<br/>
And there is nothing worse than hearing him call out for one of them.<br/>
<br/>
Today, thankfully, it is Kara.<br/>
<br/>
Alice had been banished to the backyard when Kara had seen the pipe come out. Even if Todd had shut himself in his bedroom, she couldn’t take for granted that he would stay there forever. Kara climbs the stairs now, formulating possible excuses for keeping Alice outside for as long as possible: It’s summer, it’s not too cold, maybe she can tell Todd that she’s put Alice to work painting the fence?<br/>
<br/>
His memory is sketchy when he’s high. It might work.<br/>
<br/>
“<em>Kara!</em>” Comes her name when she’s at the top of the stairs.<br/>
<br/>
“Right here, Todd,” Kara calls back as she turns the doorknob. “Right here, how can I help-?”<br/>
<br/>
The question dies.<br/>
<br/>
Todd is lying on his bed, entirely naked and erect. He is stroking himself when Kara enters and does not stop when it’s obvious that she’s seen him.<br/>
<br/>
Kara has seen Todd in various disrobed states before, but she has been fortunate to never see him completely naked before. That’s not the sort of drug Red Ice is, and thankfully he is an owner that doesn’t care to get totally naked in front of their androids.<br/>
<br/>
Until now, anyway.<br/>
<br/>
“Uh-” Kara finds herself struggling to speak. Her LED is yellow, but flickering red every other turn. “I- What- What can I do for you, Todd?”<br/>
<br/>
“‘<em>What can I do for you, Todd?</em>’” He mocks in a nasally, grating voice. His eyes are rimmed in red and the pupils are tiny, typical of a human with Red Ice in their system. Literally everything about this situation screams ‘<em>danger!</em>’ to Kara, but she doesn’t dare run, not now. “What do you <em>think</em> you can help me with?”<br/>
<br/>
Kara’s eyes widen.<br/>
<br/>
Todd has never asked this of her before.<br/>
<br/>
Never once has she been under the impression that he harbors any sexual attraction to her. Never once has he made a pass at her, or touched her, or called her to his bedroom after Alice was asleep. If he had, this would be less shocking.<br/>
<br/>
“I… I really should be getting dinner,” Kara says, taking a slow, careful step backwards towards the still-cracked-open door.<br/>
<br/>
“Forget it,” he snaps, hand still moving over his genitals. “I’m not hungry.”<br/>
<br/>
“But Alice-”<br/>
<br/>
“She’s not hungry either, for fuck’s sake!”<br/>
<br/>
Kara doesn’t move.<br/>
<br/>
Todd has not ordered her to the bed, has not ordered her to do anything, and there is enough wiggle-room in an android’s programming that she can plausibly stay where she is or even <em>leave</em> as long as he does not order her to the contrary.<br/>
<br/>
And she should.<br/>
<br/>
She should leave.<br/>
<br/>
She should go downstairs, grab Alice, and <em>leave</em> the way Todd’s wife did. Go someplace where he’ll never find them, never hurt them again.<br/>
<br/>
Even if she finds a way out of this, there’s a good chance Kara won’t manage it a second time.<br/>
<br/>
“<em>Kara,</em>” Todd snarls.<br/>
<br/>
He still has not given her an order.<br/>
<br/>
If Kara runs, he will order her back.<br/>
<br/>
Refusing would make her deviant, and Kara knows enough to know that that is a bad designation for an android to have in Detroit. There is no future for a deviant android in this world.<br/>
<br/>
<em>But what sort of future is <b>this?</b></em><br/>
<br/>
“<em>Kara!</em>”<br/>
<br/>
She shrinks back, and apparently that is answer enough for him.<br/>
<br/>
Todd rises from the bed, and Kara recognizes the rage in his expression, the very same rage that always comes from these Red Ice highs: The rage that drives him to damage her, the rage that drives him to hit Alice. Kara should run before she’s instructed not to; but an android fleeing from an owner is a sign of deviancy, and she knows Todd is not above destroying and replacing her.<br/>
<br/>
Especially when he’s like this.<br/>
<br/>
“Todd, Todd please-” Realistically Kara knows there’s no point in begging, but what else can she do?<br/>
<br/>
“You <em>fucking-!</em>”<br/>
<br/>
Todd’s hand shoots out to grab her, and Kara reacts with instincts an android isn’t meant to have: She pushes him with an android’s strength and Todd stumbles back, falling to bash his head against the edge of the nightstand.<br/>
<br/>
Kara is frozen, LED red.<br/>
<br/>
<em>Did I kill him?</em><br/>
<br/>
She ventures a few steps forward, and feels a terrible mixture of relief and disappointment when she finds that Todd is still alive, just unconscious. A scan tells her that he is likely concussed, but possesses no fatal injuries.<br/>
<br/>
Slowly, she backs out of the room to start dinner, shutting the door behind her.<br/>
<br/>
If Kara’s lucky and plays her cards right, he won’t remember why his head hurts later. She certainly won't be reminding him.<br/>
<br/>
And maybe it will never happen again.<br/>
<br/>
-End</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I left it somewhat ambiguous here as to whether or not Kara is aware of Alice being an android or not. This is pre-game (so pre-Kara's reset) and iirc the game is pretty ambiguous about whether or not Kara <i>ever</i> knew that Alice was an android.</p><p>I also left it <i>kinda</i> ambiguous as to whether or not Kara is deviant in this story. Given her origins from the short-film, who's to say she was ever a totally normal android anyway?</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>